HU plans to keep wins coming, next year and beyond

Hampton's Jericka Jenkins ended the season as the Lady Pirates' leading scorer, averaging 13.8 points per game.

Peter Casey-US PRESSWIRE, US PRESSWIRE

Hampton Pirates guard Jericka Jenkins (23) drives to the basket against Stanford Cardinal guard Amber Orrange (33) during the first half in the first round of the 2012 NCAA women's basketball tournament at Ted Constant Center.

Hampton Pirates guard Jericka Jenkins (23) drives to the basket against Stanford Cardinal guard Amber Orrange (33) during the first half in the first round of the 2012 NCAA women's basketball tournament at Ted Constant Center. (Peter Casey-US PRESSWIRE, US PRESSWIRE)

HAMPTON -- After her remarkable four-year ride at Hampton ended with a loss to Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament, HU senior point guard Jericka Jenkins fielded the usual pat-on-the-back comments from family and friends.

HU won a Division I school-record 26 games in 2011-12, its second regular-seasonMid-Eastern Athletic Conferencechampionship and its third consecutive MEAC tournament title. That booked the Lady Pirates their third NCAA tournament trip in a row, and though HU's seed – 16 – and result – a 73-51 loss to the No. 2 team in the nation – were disappointments, its season remains one to remember.

Jenkins led the Lady Pirates (26-5) with 13.8 points per game and led the nation for a chunk of the season with nearly eight assists per game. (Her final average of 7.1 assists ranks fifth.) A criminal justice major with a 3.71 GPA that earned her third-team Capital One academic all-American honors, Jenkins became the 22nd player in program history to score 1,000 career points, the second to record 500 career assists, and the first to earn Associated Press All-American recognition with last season's honorable mention nod.

"We worked hard to build a good team and leave a great legacy for this school," said Jenkins, one of three senior starters who combined to average 37.3 of HU's 65 points per game. "I just wanted to play basketball. I didn't think I was going to rewrite or change a lot of records."

But as much as HU and coach David Six will miss Jenkins, guard Choicetta McMillian (13th in the nation with 2.8 made 3-pointers per game) and forward Melanie Warner, the senior trio isn't leaving the Lady Pirates' cupboard bare.

The Lady Pirates' incoming recruiting class features Sade King, a point guard from Mount Vernon (N.Y.) who's even smaller than the 5-foot-4 Jenkins but has been a varsity player since seventh grade and scored her 1,000th point this past season. Blake Jenkins, a 5-10 forward out of Clarksville, Tenn., and Ryan Jordan, a 5-11 guard out of Stonewall Jackson High in northern Virginia, have also already signed with HU.

"These kids are more athletic," Six said. " … We'll look much different, but things won't change in terms of you're still going to have to play defense, you'll still have to take care of the ball, and you'll still have to play defense. Those things won't change."

What has changed, after three straight NCAA appearances, is HU's national profile. Gesturing to a stack of highlight DVDs on his desk, Six said, "We used to call these the 'Get-You-Fired' tapes, because people would send us (film saying) 'I'm a 5-foot-2 power forward,' " to which Six and his staff would respond, " 'Man, get outta here. You're gonna get us fired.'

"But now when we get these tapes, there are kids that can really play."

Six, 71-24 in three seasons at HU, hopes such athletes enable him to keep building a program and turning heads, even as other MEAC programs ascend around him. Howard (24-9) returns three of its top four scorers from a team that lost 59-56 in overtime to Virginia in the WNIT, while Florida A&M (22-8) and Coppin State (20-12) also had 20-win seasons in 2011-12.

"I would like to think that we raised the bar a little bit, and we're OK with the level of expectation being high," Six said. "If I have anything to do about it, we're not going anywhere."

NORFOLK - With just less than seven minutes to play in the first half, Choicetta McMillian hit a step-back 3-pointer to pull 16th seed Hampton within a point of Stanford in Saturday's first-round NCAA tournament game.